Morris Dancing is a living English tradition of performance dance and
music which has survived for well over 500 years. Villagers in Bampton,
Oxfordshire, say that Morris Dancing has been performed at Whitsuntide
(a.k.a. Pentecost) every year, except for in times of war, for over eight
hundred years. The truth is, we don't know how old Morris dancing is.
It's origins have been lost in the mists of time with the dances being
passed down from generation to generation.

Morris dances are usually performed by a set of six dancers. The dancers clash
sticks or wave handkerchiefs as they perform the figures of the dance. Bells on
their legs jingle as they move. The dances are often accompanied by traditional
folk characters. The Fool romps around the set, harassing the dancers and
amusing the audience. The Hobby Horse prances about, sometimes carrying a hat
used to solicit money from the observers. The Betty, a man in women's clothing,
is thought by some to be an ancient fertility symbol.

Music is an integral part of Morris dancing and is always performed live. The
traditional Morris instrument is the pipe and tabor: a single musician
simultaneously plays a three-holed pipe with the left hand and a small drum with
the right hand. During the twentieth century other instruments have come into
use, including (but certainly not limited to, the accordion, the melodion and
the concertina.
- Taken in part from a summary written by Steve Winograd for the Maroon Bells 20th
Anniversary Ale

Historic References to Morris Dancing

From the Free Library
there is research that points to a payment in 1448 by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
for 7 shillings for the Moryssh daunsers.

A 1552 account of an event in January of that year: -
"... The iiij day of Januarii was mad a grett skaffold [in Ch]epe hard by the
crosse, agaynst the kynges lord of myss[rule] cumyng from Grenwyche; and landyd at
Towre warff, [and with] hym yonge knyghts and gentyllmen a gret nombur on [horseb]
ake sum in gownes and cotes and chynes abowt ther nekes, every man havyng a balderyke
of yelow and grene abowt ther nekes, and on the Towre hyll ther they [went in] order,
furst a standard of yelow and grene sylke with Sant Gorge, and then gonnes and
skuybes, and trompets and bagespypes, and drousselars and flutes, and then a gret
compeny all in yelow and gren, and docturs declaryng my lord grett, and then the
mores danse dansyng with a tabret, ...

A 1557 account of a May Day celabration: -
"... The xxx day of May was a goly May-gam in Fanch-chyrchestrett with drumes
and gunes and pykes, and ix wordes dyd ryd; and thay had speches evere man, and the
morris dansse and the sauden, and a elevant with the castyll, and the sauden
and yonge morens with targattes and darttes, and the lord and the lade of the
Maye.

In 1613, Queen Anne, wife of James I, visited Somerset, England.
The visit was documented by
Nicholas Arnold
.
What makes this account interesting is that the morris dances are performed by
indiviual trade guilds. Here are some excerpts:

"The Hammer-men, which were the carpenters, joyners,. cowpers, masons, tylers and blackesmthes. And they presented a streamer with their armes; and Noath building the arke; Vulcan workinge at the iforge; Venus carried in a char- riot, and Cupid sittinge in her lapp with his bowe bent; a Morrice daunce; the Dragon which devoured the virgins.

"The Cordyners, who presented St. Crispian and ??? both of them sonnes to a kinge, and the youngest a shoemaker,, who married his master's daughter. They allsoe presented a morris daunce, and a streamer with their arms.

"The Mercers, who presented a streamer; a morris daunce of young children; "

WILTSHIER. The Testimony and Examinacon of William Farmoe and Joan his wife of Woodburrough at Pewsey before me John Ashe Esqre one of the Justices of the Peace the twentieth day of May in the yeare of our Lord God 1652.

Who say the Edward Smyth and Edward Hawking of Woodburrow did upon the last Lords Day being the 16th of the Instat May after diner time Travaile and goe to a place called Allcannings and there did invite severall people of Cannings aforesayd to the number of twelve persons neer there aboute who upon the Munday morning following came armed with musketts powder match and bandaleares which they brought with them to Woodburroughe and that Robert Golfe alsoe of Woodburroughe went unto Marlburroughe upon the said Lords Day to gett a drummer to head the sd leude company and aboute one a clocke that same Sunday night came away out of Marlburghe with the sd drummer to Woodburrough. And they further say that Thomas Beasant of Woodburroughe labourer did upon the sayd Lords day goe into a place called Ram Ally in the pishe of Easton and there invited and procured a fidler who came to Woodburroughe upon Munday morning following and by the instigacon of the before named partie three hundred persons or there aboutes were assembled and gathered together in a Riotous Routous Warlicke and very disorderly manner with Musketts pistolls bills swords drawne and other unlawful weapons, who upon Munday the said 17th of May did march together to the pishe of Pewsey and there very disorderly daunced the Morrice daunce and committing severall other misdemeanors there as drinkeing and Tipling in the Inn and Alehouse till many of them were drunke.

(Signed) JOHN ASHE.

Collected by the wife of a colleague of Peter Contrastano from Wiltshire, UK, county records (court records from 1652)

From the
Diary of Samuel Pepys there is the
following passing reference to Morris Dancing: Friday 1 May 1663 -
"... By and by, about seven or eight o'clock, homeward; and changing my horse
again, I rode home, coaches going in great crowds to the further end of the town
almost. In my way, in Leadenhall Street, there was morris-dancing which I have
not seen a great while."